Mminniii m®W W»*B

jfe",>:

||||| 'l3S»™

P rSSM#98 Jt. 'jjBfIWIIS jffiS

Magnificently Wrought of Inlaid Colored Glasi, Faience and Stone s, the

Picture of T utankhamen and His Bride, Nefertiti s Daughter, Wat Set Intothe Back of the Coronation Throne Found in Hii Tomb.

By JOHN KKSKINE

WHEN' American sojdiers discovered a Nazihoard of gold and art treasures the otherday in an old salt mine at Morkons, (Ger-

many, they proiMbly dal ivnt know that the mostprecious thing there was the portrait bust of a1 idy who cut a figure in the world several yearsago. She was Nefertiti, mother-inlaw of Tut-ankhamen and wife of Akhnaton, radical Pharaohof Egypt in the 11th century, B. C.

Nefertiti’s name means “The beautiful one ishere.” She was said to be the most beautifulwoman who ever lived, far surpassing Helen ofTroy. For 3,000 years or more she had been, asyou might say, in obscure retirement, since noHorner sang of her.

But 33 years ago her marvelous portrait bustwas dug up at Tel-ul-Amarna in Egypt, and takento Germany. After the First World War it wasput on exhibition at the Berlin Museum, andNefertiti’s name was understood at last. Minia-ture reproductions of the statue have been widelydistributed, until now the daughter of the Nileoutdoes the Queen of Sparta in publicity.

Helen still has quite a name, but we’re notsure what she looked like. Nefertiti we recognizeat sight. Moreover, the subtle charm which wasthe undoing of Paris, is buried with Helen’s dust;Greek scholars can edit Homer without losingcither their heart or their head. But Nefertiti,since her portrait has been recovered, is as devas-tating as ever, at this very day a potential causeof strite between nations.

She was brought to light at Tel-el Amarna in1!»12 by P»r. Ludwig Borchardt, noted archeologist,director in Egypt of the German Oriental Society.Dr. Borchardt, until then a serious and well bal-anced gentleman, abducted Nefertiti’s bust fromEgypt almost as unconventionally and as raptur-ously as Paiis separated Helen from Sparta.

The Egyptian law requires excavators to makeknown their finds. A division of the objects is

¦ ¦

iV-had foil d the and the Egyptian^^^Bjgovernment • iim< I that he had done no suchthing, but the statue went to whichseems to indk ite that the scholarly doctor putsomething over on somebody.

In Berlin the portrait was kept in hiding untilafter the First World War, not because the Alliesat that time threatened to bomb the city, but be-cause the British authorities in Egypt would un-doubtedly side with Egypt, and Dr. Borchardt,German though he was, recognized that Germanymight be beaten, in which case the most beauti-ful woman would go home.

Perhaps she will indeed go home soon. It isnot improbable that she is homesick for the Nile.Thirty-three years are a brief span compared with3.000, but they were enough for this ancientcharmer to get in her work.

Dr. Borchardt died some time ago, the last butone of Nefertiti's devoted slaves It is said thathis admiration of the statue carried over intowhat he thought was a mystical communion >

with the dead woman. If ho were still >7*breathing, the American Gls might havefound him in the salt mine with the por- <

trait bust in his protecting embrace. If /„”v *-

it had been convenient for Adolf Hitler j .

* 1

to do so, he too might have been in the / *

salt mine. Even more than Dr. Bor- /f " i \

Queen Nefertiti, “The Beautiful One fIs Here” —She and ller Husband fAkhnaton Were Among the .MostEnlightened Hillers of All

y ¦t<y iiii-

A 1 •

Stolen by the Staid Arche-ologist Who Fell in LoveWith It, the Bust of Tuftankhamen's Mother-in-Law—More Precious, His-torian John Erskine Says,Than Anything Else theDoughboys Found in theNazi Salt Mine—ls on Its

Way Back to Egypt

clnrdt, he had been adamantagainst Egypt's attempts to re-rover her great queen. Dike thedigging doctor, he thought Nefer-titi was his destined soul-mate,horn, unfortunately for herself, alittle too soon.

THE PORTRAIT bust of painted* limestone, Though incomparable,is mai l ed by w hat many gentlemenwould consider a serious Impellection in a lady; the left eye i-%lacking. Dr.. Borchardt once eonles>ed that at the moment N< fnftft was found the workmen werer.ot enjoying his personal. jsiipot\i-Mf, in fact, tin y were u mg

: • ; av.s, whit h is not the anprovi <I chi juo when* fine pottery oi

' trait bust* are expected.But having crudely uncover- t

she ijfe Itko head. they notiftertBorehatdt, who, f tl •

saw to it that the sand wns tt ¦moved by hand, but fxith eai h-1had pines chipped nut of them,

anti the Inset of tit*-

1 1

jpHHjHHjn% ¦

¦

-

1

mi '

. /

'fyt

W A

Sr

July 1, I!>!.¦»22